Electric cars seem to be getting more affordable by the day, and the latest to get a price drop is the 2013 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive. With sales currently limited to only a handful of states, the Smart Fortwo ED is preparing for its nationwide rollout by offering a 36-month lease of the Fortwo ED Coupe for as low as $139 per month – or the same price as the non-electric Fortwo. The previous Fortwo ED leases started at $199 a month.

Smart is celebrating 1.5 million Fortwos built since 1998 at its plant in Hambach, France, before it goes offline for an extended summer break. The 1.5 millionth Fortwo is a white Electric Drive Cabriolet, but it isn't known which market it will be sold in.

Like Ford in the US, Daimler makes vehicles with different kinds of powertrains in one plant. Over in Hambach, France, around 750 Daimler elves workers put out all the Smart Fortwos in the world, over 1.4 million and counting. Daimler now also makes the Fortwo Electric Drive there, the first series production EV made in Europe. Daimler invested over 200 million euros to expand the plant for the EV model and future products. So far, over 1,000 electric Smarts have been built and Smart head Annett

If you were to gaze upon the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive and ponder what you might add to sort of, you know, set it off a bit, you probably wouldn't consider adding a pair of wings. That's because you are not Jeremy Scott. He, on the other hand, would do exactly that. And has.

We're getting our first drive in the 2013 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive today, and Smart just announced pricing for the latest version of its all-electric minicar. The starting price for the ForTwo ED Coupe will be $25,000 (*plus delivery fees), making it the lowest price electric vehicle in the U.S. from a mainstream automaker – and that doesn't even include the available $7,500 federal tax credit.

Bloomberg has reported that Daimler is looking at the Smart ForTwo Electric Drive to recharge the division's relevance and brand perception, and part of how the ForTwo ED will do that is by being the first mass-produced and the least expensive German electric car on the market. Some context: Bloomberg says the brand seeks 10,000 annual sales for its electron-powered runabout, which is just 10 percent of Smart global sales. More important than how many ForTwo EDs are sold, however, would be the f

Daimler talked about the start of production for the next-generation Smart Fortwo ED last week, but waited until today to give more details on the electric-drive city car (standard details here or below). With a bigger motor from EM-motive, higher top speed (75 miles per hour) and more range (90 miles), the new Fortwo ED has been upgraded with input from "extensive experience and customer feedback from various electric mobility projects," Daimler says in a statement. Smart head Annette Winkler s

For some people, buying an electric car is a long-time dream. For others, the excitement comes simply from driving one and not having to worry about the hassles of vehicle ownership. Turns out, there are at least 6,000 such people in San Diego, CA, where Daimler's easy-access car-sharing program, Car2go, reported that many users in the program's first 100 days. Car2go is also happy to note that the 300 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive models that are in use there now means that, "for the first time i

If given the choice, we'd grab the keys to an all-electric Smart ForTwo way before its gasoline-powered sibling, if for no other reason than it would mean we wouldn't have to put up with that horrid automated manual transmission. But such faint praise isn't really fair to the Brabus Electric Drive. After all, it's got 80 horsepower on tap, which is plenty for the little urban runabout, and its 100 pound-feet of torque ought to be available from zero rpm.

If given the choice, we'd grab the keys to an all-electric Smart ForTwo way before its gasoline-powered sibling, if for no other reason than it would mean we wouldn't have to put up with that horrid automated manual transmission. But such faint praise isn't really fair to the Brabus Electric Drive. After all, it's got 80 horsepower on tap, which is plenty for the little urban runabout, and its 100 pound-feet of torque ought to be available from zero rpm.

Daimler is getting ready to beef up the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive for the third-gen version, but the new EV won't be arriving on schedule, according to new reports. The problem has something to do with the lithium-ion batteries. The cells are being made by Li-Tec and a Daimler spokeswoman told Automotive News that, "There are no technical or quality problems with the batteries, but we don't want to lower our sights in safeguarding quality. That's why we're accepting a delay." Li-Tec is a joint

Daimler's doing its level best to give a lot of people the chance to drive a Smart Fortwo. The ity car is the star of the company's car-sharing program called Car2go, which is expanding into Vienna this December and will, for the first time in the U.S., go all-electric in San Diego, CA this weekend.

For diehard fans of the Smart Fortwo, particularly of the Electric Drive version, 2012 ushers in the third-generation of the pint-sized electric two-seater. Aside from a host of upgrades for 2012, the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive gets a very welcome price drop.

With the city of Hong Kong battling record levels of pollution, Daimler has worked up what it thinks is a partial solution. The German automaker says it will provide an undisclosed number of trial versions of its Smart Fortwo Electric Drive to select partners there.